I took these from Instagram. I know Instagram has filters but it is clear that the quality is a bit higher than what you'd normally take using the stock camera. Is he using an outside app? The user does have an iPhone 5

I don't see anything about those pictures that's so special technically. Just aim your iPhone 5 camera, touch the screen to choose the focusing and metering area, then click gently. Pay attention to the light. And yes, the photos you posted appeared to be post processed.

I took these from Instagram. I know Instagram has filters but it is clear that the quality is a bit higher than what you'd normally take using the stock camera. Is he using an outside app? The user does have an iPhone 5

Just get hipstamatic or camerapro or some other photo app and start shooting. Those apps are pretty good at what they do. Also, learn something about good light and composure conventions.

For example, the "camera!" app does a pretty good job with the right input. Below are two versions of the exact same shot, before and after processing. This was a quick grab, all I did was pay attention to the composure using the basic "rule of thirds". The rest is a filter in the "camera!" App.

One could theoretically take a high-quality photo with an expensive camera, edit it in Photoshop on their computer if they choose, email it to themselves, open and copy it to the iPhone camera roll and select it from the Instagram App options. Not all Instagram photos posted were/are taken with the mobile phone the app resides on.

Just get hipstamatic or camerapro or some other photo app and start shooting. Those apps are pretty good at what they do. Also, learn something about good light and composure conventions.

For example, the "camera!" app does a pretty good job with the right input. Below are two versions of the exact same shot, before and after processing. This was a quick grab, all I did was pay attention to the composure using the basic "rule of thirds". The rest is a filter in the "camera!" App.

If you want a good PC based photo editing app, Adobe Lightroom is as good as they come (short of throwing in the money and time to learn to use Photoshop effectively). It's all sliders and cropping and stuff, plus it serves as a photo portfolio organizer. Highly recommended.

As far as the iPhone app, I guess it's called "Camera Awesome". It will show up on your phone as "Camera!"